AUGUST 6, 2016 NEW YORK GIANTS TRAINING CAMP REPORT…
The New York Giants held their eighth summer training camp practice on Saturday at Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

WHAT’S UP NEXT…
There is no practice on Sunday. The ninth training camp practice will be held on Monday from 11:10AM – 12:40PM. Only four remaining training camp practices at Quest Diagnostics Training Center will be open to the public (weather permitting) this year:

MAY 23, 2016 NEW YORK GIANTS OTA PRACTICE REPORT…
Phase Three (Weeks 6-9) of the New York Giants voluntary nine-week offseason program started on Monday. During Phase Three of offseason programs, NFL teams may conduct a total of 10 days of organized team practice activities, or “OTAs”. No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are permitted.

The OTA practices will be held May 23-24, May 26, June 1-3, June 6-7, and June 9-10. The Giants will hold a mandatory, full-team mini-camp on June 14-16.

INJURY REPORT AND ABSENTEES…
Safety Cooper Taylor had surgery last week to repair a sports hernia injury and will be out until training camp begins on July 28.

Working on the side were wide receiver Victor Cruz (calf), running back Orleans Darkwa (leg), offensive tackle Byron Stingily (unknown), and defensive end Romeo Okwara (unknown).

“Right now, we’re looking for (Cruz) to get back here and he’s working to get back to training camp,” said Head Coach Ben McAdoo. “Small steps.”

Cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was a no-show for the voluntary OTA. “DRC wasn’t able to make it today,” said McAdoo. “We look forward to getting him back here as soon as we can…It’s a voluntary opportunity, OTA’s. If he’s here, we’ll coach him. If he’s not, we wish him nothing but the best…We want all of our guys here. We feel it’s important to developing the team and building fundamentals and working on communication and we can’t wait to get DRC back.”

PRACTICE NOTES…
Some snippets from various media sources:

The first-team safeties were Landon Collins and Nat Berhe. The second-team safeties were Bennett Jackson and Darian Thompson.

The first-team wide receivers were Odell Beckham, Jr. and Geremy Davis outside, with Dwayne Harris playing in the slot.

Cornerback Eli Apple received time with the first unit and did a nice job against receivers such as Geremy Davis and Dwayne Harris. He worked both outside and in the slot.

Offensive lineman Bobby Hart appeared to work exclusively at right tackle, even receiving some first-team reps.

Nikita Whitlock lined up at fullback with second team in drills. Will Johnson appeared to work with the second team at H-Back.

Adam Gettis was working with the second-team offensive line at center.

Brad Bars appears to have been shifted from defensive end to linebacker.

JUSTIN TUCK TO RETIRE AS A NEW YORK GIANT…
Defensive end Justin Tuck will retire from the NFL on Friday as a New York Giant. The 33-year old Tuck was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Giants and played nine seasons (2005-2013) with the team. He played his final two seasons with the Oakland Raiders (2014-2015). Tuck finished unofficially in 10th place on the team’s all-time sack list with 60.5. He won two Super Bowl rings with the team during the 2007 and 2011 seasons.

GIANTS SIGN LB GRAHAM STEWART…
Although not officially confirmed, a local station in Connecticut is reporting that the New York Giants have signed undrafted rookie free agent linebacker Graham Stewart (University of Connecticut). Stewart lacks ideal size, but he is a decent athlete and team leader who plays hard. He is a self-described run-and-hit linebacker.

JERRY REESE’S 2016 PRE-DRAFT PRESS CONFERENCE…
New York Giants General Manager Jerry Reese held his annual pre-draft press conference on Thursday. The following is the transcript from the event (video is also available courtesy of Giants.com):

Opening Statement: Good morning. It’s draft time again. The scouts are (upstairs) working hard on the draft board. Coach (Ben) McAdoo is in there, Marc Ross, Chris Mara and all of our personnel people. It’s an exciting time for us like always and we’re looking forward to next week to try to help our team in the draft. Before you ask the question, we’re open to moving up, we’re open to moving back, and I’ll take any questions.

Q: Last week John (Mara) said that this draft is more important than others have been. Do you share that philosophy?

A: Not for me. All the drafts are important for me. I understand why John would say something like that, but all of the drafts are very important to me and I think all of the drafts are important to John as well. I think when you say something like that, I think it gets taken out of context a little bit, but I understand what he was saying. All of the drafts are important.

Q: You said you were willing to move up and move down. Have you had any offers?

A: I can’t talk about that, but we’re willing to move up or move down.

Q: Do you sense more activity in the draft this year? There already has been three trades in the top 10.

A: Not really. In the draft you never know what’s going to happen. You just try to prepare yourself for everything. There could be a lot of movement. There can be not much more movement. Who knows?

Q: In regards to trades, you’ve traded up more than you’ve traded down since you’ve been General Manager. Is that you’re philosophy?

A: It’s just how it unfolded. The draft changes after every pick. Sometimes you can move up and sometimes you can move back and so it happens we’ve been able to move up a couple of times.

Q: Back at the combine you said you would pick the best available player. Have you stuck to that philosophy?

A: Best player available.

Q: Two of your last three first round picks have been used on offensive linemen. Do you take that into consideration at all of how much of your resources you can put in a short period of time into one specific position group?

A: No. We’re just trying to put the guys up there in the best order that we can and pick the best player available when we pick.

Q: What is your philosophy when you look at rounds three, four and five?

A: It’s the same thing. We put guys in the first row. We put guys in the second row and the third row. When it’s our time to pick, we try to pick the best player in the row. Sometimes we can get two players out of the first row. We like it when we can get two players who we’ve got in the first row. We like it like that. In the first row, all of those guys are not really first round picks because we call them rows.

Q: How much of a difference has it been working with Ben and his staff versus former head coach Tom Coughlin’s staff?

A: Our coaches have always been a part of the process since I’ve been with the New York Giants for 21 years and nothing has changed in respect to that.

Q: After the season you and John Mara said you would study what went right and wrong in past drafts. How extensive was that self-analysis?

A: We looked at a lot of things. I’m not going to sit here and divulge what we talked about and what we discovered and what we looked at, but we worked hard on some things. I know this. I know our scouts work their behinds off. They do all of the work. They’re on the road for almost 200 days out of the year. They do the legwork for us and they do a tremendous job for us.

Q: Did you find anything interesting or things you can tweak moving forward?

A: There’s always things that you find interesting when you do some research and there were some interesting things that we found.

Q: How much does your team’s recent history with injuries affect the way that you evaluate the draft process?

A: I think we’ve had some bad luck with injuries. We had a medical meeting last night and we talked about the guys that are injury risks. We try to minimize our risks, but it’s football. It’s grown men hitting each other with helmets. Guys get injured. It’s a part of the business.

Q: There are some guys in the draft who have had injuries and missed a significant portion of the year. What kind of factors go into assessing that type of player?

A: We listen to our doctors. If our doctors say the risk is too high or reject guys, we don’t take them.

Q: You wouldn’t just drop guys in the round?

A: If the injury is so significant… It’s like school. F is bad and A is good. Anything in between… If it’s a C, there’s some risk. If there’s a D, there is a lot of risk, and if it’s an F, we’re not going to take them. It’s hard for us to take a D. We rarely take a D.

Q: Does it matter where you’re picking? Is it more likely you would take a risk if you were picking at the bottom of the first round?

A: You’re not going to take a risk on your first round pick if your guy is a D. You’re not going to take a risk like that with your first round pick. If you’re in the sixth round and you’ve got an extra pick or if you’re in the seventh round and have an extra pick, you can take more risks in the later rounds because the value is not the same.

Q: What was your impression of the trades that the Rams and Eagles made?

A: What other teams do is not really my business. I’m just worried about the Giants. If they felt like they needed to do that, they did what they had to do. That’s their business.

Q: Does that change your projections of who might be available to you?

A: We always thought that there were a couple of players up top that would push some players down to us and give us more players to pick from.

Q: If you stay at your current position in the draft, will you get a player who can instantly start and can be a contributor?

A: We sure hope so. If you pick inside the first 10, 12 picks, you’d like to get a starter who you can put out there to start to play right away and we sure hope we can get one. We believe we can.

Q: Aside from punters and placekickers, is there any player who you wouldn’t take with the 10th pick because of his position?

A: No.

Q: That includes the quarterback?

A: That includes any position, except punter and kicker.

Q: Do John Mara’s comments put any sense of urgency on this draft?

A: No. I put the urgency on myself. I know I come to work everyday and I work my behind off and that hasn’t changed since day one. I see how hard our personnel people work. The pressure is always there. Nobody puts more pressure on me than me.

Q: Do you take the criticisms of recent drafts personally?

A: You guys have your own opinion on the draft and you get paid to do that. It’s okay with me.

Q: What’s your opinion on recent drafts?

A: We work hard every time we draft and my opinions are my opinions and your opinions are your opinions. I’m not going to get into that.

Q: You have a lot more information at your disposal than we do. So your opinion on how you drafted is probably going to be much more valid than ours.

A: That’s your opinion.

Q: Ben McAdoo has been with the franchise for a couple of years now and has been involved with the draft. Now that he’s the head coach, what would you say is the biggest difference in terms of his involvement in previous drafts and this one?

A: He was the coordinator last year. In this draft, he’s in on all of the meetings. He’s in the defensive players, offensive players and the special teams. He’s in all of the meetings. Last year, he was just in the offensive player meetings. So that in and of itself is different.

Q: Some people have said there is a drop in talent after the 10th pick. Do you agree with that?

A: I think there are good players in all seven rounds.

Q: With what you were able to do in the beginning of free agency, does it become more challenging to not look at the draft and free agency as separate entities as far as building the roster or is it still possible to say it this serves one purpose and the draft serves as another?

A: We’re not oblivious to what we did in free agency, but the draft stands alone. We’re just trying to pick the best players out of this draft when we’re picking.

Q: How important is football character and personal character when you’re looking for guys who can come in and be sound draft picks, but also contribute to a winning and healthy culture?

A: That’s a part of building a football team. You want to get guys who are good team players and who want to be good locker room guys. Not a lot of “me” guys. A bunch of team-oriented players that are big, tough and smart guys who want to play together as a team. You win as a team and if you don’t play as a team, it’s hard to win in this league.

Q: Do you think you have a starting caliber right tackle who you’d be very comfortable with on your roster right now?

A: Sometimes the answer is on your roster. We do have some guys that we like. We’ll see moving forward.

Q: Do you view Bobby Hart as a guard or tackle?

A: I think Bobby has the ability to play guard and tackle.

Q: Are there any players in this draft who are off your board for non-football reasons?

A: Not right now. We’re still in the process and I’m sure there will be some guys that we take off.

Q: You used three high picks on that offensive line the last three years. Is that a position where you will target in this year’s draft?

A: We’re just trying to get good players every time we pick.

Q: Is your objective to leave the draft with players at a certain position?

A: No. We’re looking at it that we need help on offense. We need help on defense. We need help on special teams and we’re trying to get good players in every aspect of those positions. Offense, Defense and Special Teams.

Q: The top two quarterbacks in the draft seem like they’re going to go one and two in the draft. If you’re not looking at a quarterback, does it make it better for you?

A: If two quarterbacks get picked in front of us, that pushes some players down to us. That gives us a better chance to get the player that Kim (Jones) talked about, a player that can come in and impact our team.

Q: Eli Manning is getting up in age. Are you close to the point where you need to start thinking about drafting his replacement?

A: We think Eli has plenty of years left, but we’re always conscious of if there is a player in this draft or previous drafts or a draft coming up that there is a quarterback available because you always want to try to have a quarterback in line ready to go as your quarterback gets older and is on the backside of his career. You’re always conscious of that.

Q: How do you assess your running backs?

A: We think all of those guys are good enough to play in the league. All of these guys are pros. I think we have five guys that can play in this league.

Q: Josh Norman is a free agent. Is there any interest there?

A: We investigate everything.

Q: How surprised were you to see he became a free agent?

A: Nothing surprises me in this business.

Q: Are you basically finished with free agent signings?

A: There are still some free agents out there. Free agency really never stops. It’s the way we’re wired. Everyday there are guys on the waiver wire, but there’s a few more veterans out there that are still waiting around and we’re still taking a look at that we can do something.

Q: Will money play a factor?

A: Money always plays a factor.

Q: We haven’t had a chance to talk to you since free agency started. What was it about those three guys that made you go out and get them?

A: Those guys were really good players. We had them high on our free agent board. We had some money this time. We felt like we had a chance to go out and get some guys with the caliber of the players that we got. We went for them and we were fortunate enough to get some of the guys that we targeted.

Q: How important was it to you to bring back Jason Pierre-Paul for another season?

A: Jason is a terrific football player and we’re hoping that the procedure that he had on his hand after the season will continue to feel better for him and he will be able to play with that hand in the condition that it is and we expect him to do that. I said at the (combine) that it was kind of a miracle for me that he played last year. He’ll be that much better now, we think.

Q: Do you think you have a starting free safety on your roster right now with all of those young guys you brought in recently?

A: We have some guys. We’ll see. In every position somebody has got to be developed and at some point we hope that one of those young safeties can step up. There are a few more guys out there in free agency that we’ll take a look at, but we’re hoping that some of those young guys can step up and play a role here.

Q: Where do you stand at linebacker?

A: We’re still going to upgrade every position. Linebacker, safety, corner, defensive line, offensive line, tight end, receiver, running back and quarterback. All of them. If I left out something, those guys, too.

Q: How is Victor Cruz doing?

A: So far so good. He’s been out there. I’ve been peeking out the window and watching him run outside. We had our medical meetings last night and all of our doctors are pleased with his progress so far and we’re hoping that he’ll be the Victor that we know.

Q: What’s the plan with Victor Cruz moving into the summer?

A: We’re going to take it easy with him and make sure that he’s ramped up a little bit at a time and when training camp comes around, we’re hoping that he’s a full go. We’re expecting him to be full go.

Q: Last year at this time you weren’t counting on Cruz. Is that different this time?

A: He hasn’t played in two years. But he’s probably more healthy now than he’s probably been in the last couple of years. What we get from Victor will be a bonus and we’re hoping it’s a great bonus for us.

Q: How much does age play a factor for you guys in the draft?

A: We’re conscious of players’ ages, but how many players have played over four, five, six years? Age is not a huge factor. We don’t want to draft a 30-year-old in this draft, but I don’t think there are any 30-year-olds in this draft. We do look at what the age is.

Q: In spite of all you did in free agency, how much do you need the guys from the last couple of drafts to step up and become what you expected them to be?

A: We always expect those guys. You’ve got to develop players. In the last few drafts that we’ve had, we expect players to step up and continue to develop and be a core part of our football team.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS 49 – NEW YORK GIANTS 17…
The New York Giants were humiliated by the Minnesota Vikings on national television on Sunday night. With the loss, the Giants fell to 6-9, ensuring their third losing season in a row. The Giants have lost five of their last six games.

While the Vikings only slightly out-gained the Giants in first downs (17 to 15) and total net yards (368 to 363), Minnesota held dramatic advantages in rushing yards (218 to 91) and time of possession (34:57 to 25:03). The Vikings also won the turnover battle 3 to 0 as quarterback Eli Manning was intercepted three times, one resulting in an interception for a touchdown and the other giving Minnesota the football at the New York 4-yard line and leading to another touchdown two plays later.

The Giants’ defense actually held up fairly well until late in the game. They forced Minnesota to punt on their first three possessions before allowing an 8-play, 40-yard drive that set up a 32-yard field goal. They then allowed a 5-play, 44-yard drive that ended with a 28-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to tight end Kyle Rudolph. After forcing another punt, the Vikings set up another field goal late in the half by driving just 23 yards in seven plays.

Meanwhile, the Giants’ offense, minus suspended wide receiver Odell Beckham, struggled a great deal. The Giants only gained 112 net yards in the first half, and 50 of the 77 gross passing yards gained came on one pass play to running back Rashad Jennings. The Giants’ wide receivers only had three catches in the first half for 21 yards. Manning was sacked three times in the first half alone. New York only gained six first downs, three on one drive that set up a 27-yard field goal. Worse, Manning’s pass intended for wide receiver Rueben Randle late in the second quarter was picked off and returned 35 yards for a touchdown (the extra point was missed).

At the half, the Vikings led 19-3.

The game spiraled out of control in the third quarter. After the Giants went three-and-out to start the second half, the Vikings drove 58 yards in nine plays to set up a 22-yard field goal to take a 22-3 lead. On New York’s first ensuing offensive snap, Manning was intercepted for a third time in the game and the ball was returned 32 yards to the New York 4-yard line. Two plays later, Minnesota took a commanding 29-3 advantage when running back Adrian Peterson scored. After another three-and-out by the Giants, the Vikings kicked a 53-yard field goal to go up 32-3 late in the quarter.

The Giants did score on a 72-yard catch-and-run by Randle with about a minute left in the third quarter to cut the lead to 32-10. But the ensuing onside kick was recovered by the Vikings and returned 27 yards to the Giants’ 18-yard line. Six plays later, the Vikings scored a touchdown to extend their advantage to 39-10. Then came a 4-and-out by the Giants, followed by 26-yard drive that set up a 27-yard field goal, another drive that ended on downs by the Giants, and then a humiliating 68-yard run by reserve running back Jerick McKinnon. Reserve quarterback Ryan Nassib came into the game with 3:30 left and drove the Giants to a late garbage touchdown.

Offensively, Manning finished 15-of-29 for 234 yards, 1 touchdown, and 3 interceptions. 122 passing yards came on two plays. No Giant caught more than three passes and no wide receiver caught more than two passes. Jennings did carry the football 14 times for 74 yards. Manning was sacked four times and officially hit eight times. Minnesota also had six tackles for losses.

Defensively, the Giants did not force a turnover. They did accrue three sacks: 1.5 by defensive end Robert Ayers, 0.5 by defensive end George Selvie, and 1.0 by linebacker Jonathan Casillas. New York also had six tackles for losses and seven quarterback hits.

INJURY REPORT…
Right tackle Marshall Newhouse and safety Craig Dahl both left the game with concussions and did not return. Linebacker J.T. Thomas injured his ankle but returned until he was later ejected for throwing a punch.

POST-GAME REACTIONS…
Video clips of post-game media sessions with Head Coach Tom Coughlin and the following players are available at Giants.com:

GIANTS WAIVE DAMONTRE MOORE…
In a surprise move, the New York Giants have waived defensive end Damontre Moore, the team’s 3rd round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.

“We made the move today in the interest of both parties,” said General Manager Jerry Reese.

NFL.com is reporting that Moore was waived, in part, because he got into a fight with a teammate before practice. According to ESPN.com, Moore’s release was “due to repeated violations of team rules and behavior and maturity issues that have not improved during his three years in the NFL” and “that the decision to waive him was based on the accumulation of issues, not just one fight.”

ESPN.com also said that Moore repeatedly responded poorly to efforts by teammates, coaches, and team officials to take practice more seriously and “feuded openly with some team officials, including general manager Jerry Reese, when confronted about his behavior.”

Moore played in 11 games in 2015 with no starts, accruing 23 tackles, 3 sacks, and 1 forced fumble. Despite being healthy, Moore was inactive in Week 7 against Dallas, presumably for his late hit against the Eagles the week before.

#Giants DE Damontre Moore got into a fight with Cullen Jenkins, sources say, over not getting free @beatsbydre headphones like other players

WHAT’S UP NEXT…
Instead of practicing, the Giants will hold a “recovery day” on Saturday. The players will select two of six recovery stations, based on seniority. Their choices are massage, yoga, FMS (Functional Movement Screen) exercises designed for the individual, air compression boots, contrast bath (between a hot and cold tub), and self-massage with stick rollers and elastic bands.

The Giants will also have a 45-minute, up-tempo “walk-thru” practice on Sunday that is not open to the media. The Giants play the Miami Dolphins on Monday.

QUINCY MONK PASSES AWAY…
Former New York Giants linebacker Quincy Monk (2002-03), who was drafted by the team in the 7th round of the 2002 NFL Draft, has passed away at the age of 36 due to cancer (adenocarcinoma). He leaves behind a wife and two children.

Pugh is still experiencing concussion-like symptoms 17 days after he was injured against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on November 8th. Head Coach Tom Coughlin said that Pugh has improved “very little.”

The situation with Donnell is also sounding more serious. Donnell said on Monday that he was cleared to return to practice. “(Donnell) continues to have the issues,” said Coughlin.

“It’s not looking good,” said Donnell. “Monday, I was fine. I was out there running, jumping around. I felt good, but I had more tests to get cleared yesterday and they found something else. So I’ve got to go talk to them about it and see what’s going on…I feel fine now, but I mean obviously something is wrong, so we’ve just got to figure it out and see what the process is…We’ve got to make sure everything’s OK in there. That’s more than football you’re talking about, when it’s your neck.”

REPORT: DANIEL FELLS’ NFL CAREER OVER…
According to the BleacherReport.com, TE Daniel Fells’ career is over due to the life-threatening MRSA staph infection. BleacherReport.com is reporting that one of the five surgeries performed on Fells removed part of his foot. The New York Daily News says that while Fells’ foot remains intact, he career is likely over. At one point, there was a fear that the entire foot would need to be amputated in order to save Fells’ life. According to some media reports, Fells contracted the infection after receiving a cortisone shot to treat an ankle injury.

“We dedicated the game to Daniel Fells,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin on Monday afternoon. “On Skype in our team meeting today, we handed or showed him the game ball that he will receive. Everybody was able to cheer him on and try to make him feel better. He was very nice in saying that he watched the game and he was very proud of the way that we finished it.

“I think he’s pretty much having a third day in a row where the progress is being made and he feels better than he has. He’s gotten two or three straight nights of good sleep. I think that’s helped…I don’t believe he’s out of woods. I think these three straight days are really a wonderful sign, but there’s more tests to be done. And again, the response to the antibiotic is critical.”

NEW YORK GIANTS INJURY UPDATE…
Both starting wide receivers Odell Beckham and Rueben Randle injured hamstrings during the game on Sunday night. “Well, we’re going to have to see,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “They’re going to have to treat. They’ve got a couple days when they can be treated as Thursday will be a Wednesday. So we do have a couple of days and we’ll take full advantage of that. I did tell our team that the important thing on a weekly basis, week in and week out, is to play these really tough physical football games and come right back and do it again the next week. We need more of our guys on the practice field, we need some consistency with our weeks. I’m hoping that we can get Odell and Rueben at least on a limited basis for the entire rest of the week. I know that’s (optimistic), but I would hope we could do that…But we’ll see, we’ll see how fast they can respond.”

“It’s fine,” Randle said of his hamstring after the game. “It’s not bad. Actually I was going to come back into the game until Larry (Donnell) scored that touchdown. Just going to take a couple of days and I will be fine.”

Linebacker Jon Beason suffered a concussion in the game. “I think (the extra day off) will (help him),” said Coughlin. “He seemed to be in pretty good spirits and pretty good shape this morning.”

Left guard Justin Pugh missed the final two offensive plays of the game with an ankle injury. “I tweaked my ankle,” said Pugh after the game. “I am going to be fine. I feel good.”

Cornerback Trumaine McBride did not aggravate his previous groin injury. Safety Brandon Meriweather sprained his knee in the game but returned to the contest. There was no word on his status.

Good afternoon. I looked at the tape today, the coaches did, and we got together and talked about it. Just had our meeting, at least I had my meeting with the team, they’re still downstairs looking at the tape. I think the drive at the end of the half, the drive at the end of the halves were just outstanding. The play that gave us the touchdown was obviously something that was extremely exciting. We all went crazy on the sideline. Just to think that we had actually taken the ball and won the game at the end of the game, we had a couple of situations earlier this year where the other guy had the ball and they won the game. So it was really an exciting time for us. The locker room was great. There were very good vibes, very good language coming from the players in terms of what it meant to win a game of that nature. I don’t think it was our best game in many categories. I don’t think we obviously played as well defensively as we’d like to have played. We did not rush the ball the way that I would want to. And I did tell our team that we pretty consistently have this 50 percent thing going in the green zone and it’s not going to improve until we can rush the ball with some degree of confidence. And I do believe that. The numbers, there were lots of numbers—Eli played extremely well. Made a lot of great decisions, got us into a lot of outstanding plays, the exception being the last play before the half where with 11 seconds left we elect to throw the ball into the end zone. If you don’t like it, you throw it away. He had to move a little bit there and therefore I think it took a little something off his throw. If he would have had it higher or further away where Odell would have been the only one that could have got it.

The TV people asked me at halftime and I said, “Look, that’s behind us. We certainly would have liked to scored right there, we didn’t, so we’ve got to move on. That’s all we can do.” And we did. The second half, San Francisco did a good job offensively, without a doubt, against our defense. Put some points on the board, 21 points on the board. But we were able to come up with the key drive at the end of the game to win the game. There were many outstanding players’ performances in the game. There was no doubt that Josh Brown had a big night—three for three field goals, five of six touchbacks. Eli with his numbers and a 110 quarterback rating. Shane Vereen with a big night, eight receptions 86 yards, a touchdown, the big screen at the end of the game there. Odell with seven for 121, 17.3, a long of 49, and a touchdown. And of course the catch by Donnell. I thought, defensively, Damontre Moore had two sacks, three tackles, and a caused fumble. And DRC had a nice game. He was physical on the rocket screen, which we needed to turn away, and he does continue to turn away on his side. Five tackles, two caused fumbles, so he played well. I think for us to win a game of that nature, we knew that the 49ers would play in a very loose fashion, that they would have the attitude that they have nothing to lose. And, of course, the one thing that came out of it was Kaepernick’s game was elevated. Here’s a guy that had a 16 quarterback rating against Arizona, came in here and had a 107, threw the ball well, did not throw an interception. Another disappointing thing for us was on special teams and defense, we did not get a takeaway. We’ve done an outstanding job with takeaways, in terms of converting them to points. Not to have those last night was a real issue. We did have the ball on the ground a couple times, didn’t get it back. The Kaepernick fumble would have been an ideal opportunity for us with DRC knocking it out and us going down and getting the ball would have been denying them points. It didn’t happen. We’re pleased to win, we’re excited about the way we won. It was great for the fans to hang in there with us and be ecstatic at the end of the game.

I really enjoyed the fact that we could come through for four great Giants that were inducted into the Ring of Honor last night. I really wanted to honor those four gentlemen by playing well. Two of them are our own, Chris Snee and Osi Umenyiora, those are our guys. We wanted to be able to do that. I really was pleased to be able to go and give them a hug at halftime. And we also wanted to win the game, and we dedicated the game to Daniel Fells. On Skype in our team meeting today, we handed or showed him the game ball that he will receive. Everybody was able to cheer him on and try to make him feel better. He was very nice in saying that he watched the game and he was very proud of the way that we finished it. Anybody have a question? I doubt if you do, this thing ran on and on.

Q: What was Daniel’s reaction to getting the game ball and how is he feeling?

A: I think he’s pretty much having a third day in a row where the progress is being made and he feels better than he has. He’s gotten two or three straight nights of good sleep. I think that’s helped. As I said, we dedicated the game to him. So in a win, he was very gracious about receiving a game ball, was excited about that happening. Just told his teammates what he felt about them based on their game. It was nice.

Q: What’s the status of the hamstring issues with Beckham and Randle the day after or is it too soon to know?

A: Well, we’re going to have to see. They’re going to have to treat. They’ve got a couple days when they can be treated as Thursday will be a Wednesday. So we do have a couple of days and we’ll take full advantage of that. I did tell our team that the important thing on a weekly basis, week in and week out, is to play these really tough physical football games and come right back and do it again the next week. We need more of our guys on the practice field, we need some consistency with our weeks. I’m hoping that we can get Odell and Rueben at least on a limited basis for the entire rest of the week. I know that’s (optimistic), but I would hope we could do that.

Q: Did they go take MRI’s?

A: Oh yeah, they’ve done it all. But we’ll see, we’ll see how fast they can respond.

Q: Victor Cruz was supposed to meet with the doctors today to go over the progress of the injection last week. Have you heard anything on that?

A: No. No I haven’t heard. You know more than I do, I didn’t know that was happening.

Q: Is it your understanding that if Fells continues to make progress that he’s going to get out and make what is hoped for, a full recovery?

A: Oh absolutely. Yeah, for sure. That’s my understanding, for sure.

Q: There was some speculation that he was facing some pretty grim possibilities there.

A: Well, I don’t believe he’s out of woods, I didn’t say that. I think these three straight days are really a wonderful sign, but there’s more tests to be done. And again, the response to the antibiotic is critical.

Q: I know you mentioned it in the postgame locker room, we saw the video, last year being 3-2 and going to Philadelphia. How is the team handling the situation now from what you’ve seen so far?

A: Well, we finished playing at quarter to twelve, and we brought them in here because we knew that they’d want to have the same kind of schedule basically—we pushed it back an hour. They’re reflecting on last night and listening to the comments and watching the tape of last night’s game. So they haven’t gone much further than just the locker room comment post game to get their minds right and make them understand what’s in front of us. We’ll know more when we see them on Thursday.

Q: What’s different, in your estimation? You won three in a row last year, you were 3-2 also. Going into this game, what’s different for you with this team now?

A: Well, the grit, the way in which we play, the energy that is spent, the scrappiness, the will, the ability seemingly to have people miss games and others kind of step up and help us win. So those would be the things right off the top of my head. Last night, every guy that was dressed had to make a contribution and they did. (Geremy) Davis, look at the catch he made, a 16-yarder on third and one. And that was a critical part. Myles (White) is out there running around and gave a good performance and accounted for himself. Will Tye played well. These guys are coming up with some games that are helping us.

Q: Have you ever had a guy quite like Shane Vereen and what his versatility has meant to your team?

A: Well, this is as we go along and get further into the season, we see and develop more in terms of how we can utilize his talents best. Last night was a great example of some of the things that he can do in certain situations when the defense may in fact think they’ve got you in a position where they have the upper hand. And someone like Shane can determine that might not necessarily be so. Have we ever had a player like this, to be able to utilize his talents? Probably not to this degree. So we’re just looking forward to continuing to utilize his talent and his ability along with the other players that we have offensively.

Q: The running back rotation changed; Shane, obviously, and Rashad Jennings took most of the snaps. How much of that was the game plan and did the situation dictate it? How much of that was a concerted decision to go with those two guys?

A: It was just the way the game unfolded. There’s an order sometimes, but it became more of a zebra game and that’s why you saw it the way it was.

Q: What’s the story with Jon Beason? I know he’s in the concussion protocol. Do you hope the extra day might help him?

A: I think it will. Yeah, I think it will. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits and pretty good shape this morning.

Q: What happened with Jonathan Casillas? He wasn’t able to go yesterday. Was that a decision that was made before warmups or did he go and it wasn’t good enough in warmups so you guys decided to go the other way?

A: Well, the part of the trainers and the medical people and Jon himself, in trying to get ready to go, had limitations. In the final hour, in my opinion, it wasn’t something that was worth a calculated risk, so we just dressed a healthier guy. And then Cooper Taylor, we got a lot of things done on special teams. Cooper took a lot of special teams snaps last night and did a good job. It was unfortunate that Jon wasn’t ready to go, but we did get some good play out of Cooper.

Q: Did Trumaine McBride reinjure his groin?

A: No, I think he came out of it okay.

Q: Why was Trevin Wade in at the end?

A: Because he’s a good football player and we decided to give him an opportunity there.

Q: Is there a scenario for Monday night where you just wouldn’t have enough personnel at receiver and might have to address that this week?

A: Well, we’ll see. I would think if you try to look at the different things that can happen, that certainly would be something that’s within the realm of possibility. I hope it doesn’t, but we’vegot a little bit of time here to see how that’s going to stack up.

Q: He obviously caught the game-winning touchdown, but what did you think of Larry Donnell’s overall performance? Blocking wise and catching?

A: Well, he made a good contribution in terms of receiving. The yards per reception weren’t necessarily great, but the last play was. And as a blocker, he does a good job knowing full well what he does best and trying to ask him to do that. So his contribution, I was just mentioning this morning that he certainly is playing better and he does look like the year’s experience has benefitted him. That was a heck of a play that he made last night.

THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts or audio of Monday’s media sessions with the following players:

RING OF HONOR CEREMONY…
A video of Sunday night’s New York Giants “Ring of Honor” ceremony for new inductees trainer John Johnson, end Jack Lumus, offensive guard Chris Snee, and defensive end Osi Umenyiora is available at Giants.com.

DANIEL FELLS HAS STAPH INFECTION, SEASON OVER…
The New York Giants announced on Monday that tight end Daniel Fells has developed a staph infection, which was discovered during treatment of what the team is calling a “chronic ankle condition.” According to NJ.com, Fells reportedly underwent multiple surgeries to treat the infection. He will be placed on season-ending Injured Reserve.

“It was very unfortunate with Daniel,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “It went from early in the week being a junkie ankle to a serious situation. I just talked to him a little while ago, he feels upbeat about it. He’s just looking forward to getting things under control so he can get out of the hospital.”

I'm told TE Adrien Robinson among those players expected to work out for #Giants as part of tomorrow's Tryout Tuesday.
Once a Giant …

Good afternoon everyone. We were certainly pleased to look at this tape because I thought our demeanor, the effort, the enthusiasm with which we played, the excitement—I thought the stadium there in Buffalo was electric. I liked the way that we responded to it. We worked well, particularly late in the week. Because of the nature of the Buffalo team, a very good team, their sophisticated defensive scheme, outstanding special teamers, outstanding returners with a very good offensive team that had scored 32 points on New England, that was the number one rush team in the league etc…

We had a lot of very sophisticated adjustments within the nature of the game plan on offense and I liked the way the approach was. I liked the way they focused, I liked the way the players prepared themselves. I think defensively we definitely set the tone with a number of three and outs in the first half. Offensively, the first half was pretty much the way we would want it to go, as well. I thought the interesting thought there was the objective on special teams was to do an outstanding job at coverage, punt coverage and kickoff coverage. And we did. And on defense, to first of all stop the run and, of course, all that falls in line there. Try to win the physical battle and the turnover battle. So our defensive team held Buffalo to a very low percentage on third down. We did not do much better on the offensive side. But as I said, we were plus-one and we won just by a little bit the time of possession. So we were pleased to be able to go on the road and to play against a very good team and to come away with a win.

Q: How impressed were you with the offensive line given the early injury to Ereck Flowers and how formidable the Bills pass rush is? Can you talk a little about their performance on Sunday?

A: Well, I will. I will say this—they did perform well. They’ve done a nice job with that. We pass protected well, we did end up with one sack. Quite frankly, that should have been picked up as well. We did have some occasions to run the ball. We rushed for 92 yards, they rushed for 55 yards. So we had more yards there. Again, we prepared well, there was an awful lot that went into it from a cerebral standpoint in the game. The guys did a good job with it. You would like to have the third quarter, maybe come back and do a better job there. Obviously the penalty on the screen really knocked us out of some opportunities there because the ball was down way deep into their territory. But we did do a good job, and we did protect the passer. The ball did come out quickly and that was the nature of the game.

Q: How has Marshall Newhouse done in particular in your estimation?

A: He’s done a good job, he’s done a good job. He’s come in and he’s worked hard and he’s been very good up front in terms of communication. He’s a smart guy. So he’s worked himself in very well.

Q: A lot of your players last night and a couple guys today talked about, it seemed like after the 0-2 start your energy level rose a little bit higher. Is that a conscious thing that you did, stay upbeat and stay the course?

A: Yeah, the obvious. Whether the energy level came up from whatever level it currently is, I don’t know about that. But I do know that it puts a fire in our belly without a doubt to be 0-2 and I didn’t think we were an 0-2 team. We needed to do something about it. So we tried to inspire our guys to believe in themselves and come together as a team, to play the four quarters. Forget about the score and play each play as hard as you possibly can and don’t let any of the circumstances get into your head. And the coaches all did a great job of, again, continuing to express the feelings that I had and keeping the energy level very high and coaching the heck out of them and being excited about it. Trying to surround ourselves with guys that are excited to compete and believe that we can win. All of those things went into it, without a doubt.

Q: Tom, you used this word to your team last night after the game and the word keeps coming out. “Relevant.” Why that choice of word?

A: Well, it’s always good to be, at this point in time in a season, looking at our start and to know that you’re in the mix, you’re in the hunt. I chose that word to make them understand it’s a word that puts you in position, but you’re not there. You’ve got a long way to go and that’s the significance of that term.

Q: You put Fells on I.R. Do you have a corresponding roster move? When did that happen?

A: Well, we’ll see about that, the move. It was very unfortunate with Daniel. It went from early in the week being a junkie ankle to a serious situation. I just talked to him a little while ago, he feels upbeat about it. He’s just looking forward to getting things under control so he can get out of the hospital. With that being the case, we would have a roster move, but we’ll make sure we take our time, do our due diligence on that.

Q: Eli threw his first interception on Sunday. What did you see from that play? Was it more a product of maybe trying to force the pass or could Rueben Randle maybe have fought a little bit harder for the ball?

A: Well, you can look at it any way you want to. The error goes to me, because I wanted to score. I wanted to be in a position at that point to score a touchdown. And then on fourth down, if we didn’t score, we would kick the field goal. But there’s different ways to play that. I asked Rueben about it, he said when the contact came from the corner, he was kind of knocked back a little bit and wasn’t able to completely finish. And I’m sure if you really bore down on him, he could have maybe run the route just a little bit better. I think Eli had thrown a similar type of pass to him for a touchdown earlier in the game. The ball had been thrown low and in a spot where Rueben was going to get it and nobody else was going to get it. I’m sure Eli would probably say something to that effect as well. Give some credit to the corner. The corner played that pretty well.

Q: Getting a chance to look back on it, do you regret throwing the ball there in that spot?

A: No, I don’t regret the call, I regret the result. I do understand completely the consequences of the decision that you could make or couldn’t make there. However, as I explained, I was looking for an opportunity on third down to score a touchdown. If we didn’t, we would kick the field goal on fourth down. That was the entire concept.

Q: Right now, you two rookie tight ends and Larry Donnell, who doesn’t have a tremendous amount of experience himself. Is this somewhere you feel you need a veteran in that spot in some way, shape or form?

A: Well, it would be nice, but that type of a player may or may not be available. We’ll have to see where that exactly stands. Larry has played a significant number of snaps here in the early part of the season and he seems to have grown into that role. We’d like to be supportive in other ways. If we can do with what we have here, fine. If there is something that we can look into that will improve us in other areas, then so be that, too.

Q: I know he dropped the pass, but what did you see from Will Tye?

A: Well, I thought it wasn’t too big for him. I thought that he did a decent job of blocking. There was a couple of decent, good plays and probably one poor play. He did have the drop on a second and one, which would have converted to a first down, no doubt. But for the first time out of the box, he went out there and handled it well in terms of emotion and that type of thing.

Q: Owa Odighizuwa played 40-something defensive snaps in his first NFL game. How do you think he did?

A: You know what, he obviously hasn’t played in quite some time and that was a factor there. But he got in there, he mixed it up. He made a really nice play on the quarterback where he kept the ball on the option. He got himself in position a couple of times where he could have been able to apply some pressure perhaps with a little bit better movement to the quarterback and the passing game. He got in there, he got his feet wet.

Q: Do you have an update on any of these injured guys—Devon Kennard or Jayron Hosley and maybe how Ereck Flowers came out?

A: Well, Flowers seemed to come out okay. This morning, he looked very good when he was here in the building. The trainers and the doctors felt that he was actually a little bit better about the position that he’s in right now than he was a week ago. So that was good. The other guys, I do not have anything on.

Q: How about Victor Cruz? Victor said that Monday was going to be a big day for him to come in and see how that injection went?

A: I don’t think we have anything to update on Victor.

Q: Is there anything with Jason Pierre-Paul? Is he scheduled to come in any time soon?

A: I have no knowledge of any such information.

THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts or audio of Monday’s media sessions with the following players:

NOTES…
The Giants are 8-1 in regular-season games vs. AFC East opponents under Tom Coughlin and 2-0 in the post-season.

QB Eli Manning increased his career total passing yards to 40,731. That moved him past Hall of Famer Joe Montana (40,551) and into 13th place on the NFL’s career list. Former Giant Kerry Collins is 12th with 40,922.

WR Odell Beckham has now played in 16 NFL games or a full season. He owns the records for catches (115) and receiving yards (1,612) in the first 16 games of a career.

AUGUST 27, 2015 NEW YORK GIANTS TRAINING CAMP REPORT…
The New York Giants concluded their summer training camp on Thursday with a “recovery cycle” day of yoga, massage, contrast bath (hot and cold tubs), self-massage stuck rollers/bands, functional movement screen exercises, and air compression boots. With preferences based on seniority, players were able to choose from two of these six 15-minute recovery activities.

INJURY REPORT…
The injury that right tackle Marshall Newhouse suffered to his right ankle on Wednesday is apparently not serious. “He is fine. He just got stepped on,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “That is a surface scratch. Someone stepped on his leg when he was on the ground and it was down relatively low and it scared him because of where the step occurred.”

Safety Nat Berhe, who has been sidelined with a calf injury since May, re-aggravated the injury in practice on Tuesday. “He re-injured his calf, that is all I can tell you,” said Coughlin. “Whatever the mechanism, whatever goes on, he had one day of practice, felt really good, came out here and had the same occurrence that happened the last time – occurred this time, so he is re-injured.”

Center Weston Richburg has been bothered by tendinitis in his left knee. “He actually feels pretty good today,” said Coughlin. “We should’ve called a practice for today. We’re going to keep working with him and seeing what the doctors and those people tell me. I don’t have anything new for you right now.” Coughlin would not indicate if Richburg would play on Saturday against the New York Jets.

“A little bit of swelling,” said Richburg. “That was the issue. The swelling can kind of take away from some muscle function. So trying to get that swelling down, get that figured out.”

Linebacker Mark Herzlich is still recovering from a concussion he suffered in the second preseason game. “He was coming along well and just didn’t feel real good yesterday,” said Coughlin. “(He’s) not (doing) as well as I would like.”

Coughlin said receiver Victor Cruz (calf) and linebacker Jon Beason (knee) would not play against the Jets. But he did say safety Landon Collins (knee) and cornerback Jayron Hosley (concussion) would play.

A little different week for us. This is what I call the GPS week. We’re following that to a ‘T.’ We’ve had two hard practices, followed by basically meetings, walk-throughs and a recovery cycle. So all three – special teams, defense and offense – had good, long meetings, they had walk-throughs and we finished that up with a recovery cycle. The recovery cycle has basically six elements and, by seniority, they can choose two. It is two fifteen-minute periods and we are currently right toward the end of the second cycle, so it is a unique kind of a day and I am interested in the feedback that I get from our leadership council and also from the assistant coaches as we go through the day and, of course, the proof will come later as to how we perform.

Q: What are those elements? What kind of things are they?

A: Yoga, massage. There are some fancy names for things we do with rollers and sticks and so on and so forth — cold tub, but it is basically just the recovery cycle muscular so on and so forth along with yoga and some of the other things we employed.

Q: Is this something you may implement during the season?

A: We are going to see. I will see what it looks like and again tomorrow is another day of this experimentation, so we are going to go through with that and we’ll see how we like it at the end of the week.

Q: Do you consider this the end of a certain segment? The last day of training camp, such as it is.

A: We just keep going. Nothing ended, everything keeps right on going. It is much different, as you know and as you have recognized in other years, and I think at this point in time the players who are able to have a home in this area, they have checked out of the hotel, the other guys will stay in the hotel and we just keep going.

Q: You talked about wanting to see more urgency in practice in the beginning of the week. Did you see that over the course of the week?

A: Yesterday, I saw a little bit more and I would like to continue to see more.

Q: Marshall Newhouse looked like he [got injured]?

A: He is fine. He just got stepped on.

Q: [What about] Nat Berhe?

A: Berhe re-injured his calf.

Q: Is it kind of back to square one with him?

A: He re-injured his calf, that is all I can tell you. Whatever the mechanism, whatever goes on, he had one day of practice, felt really good, came out here and had the same occurrence that happened the last time — occurred this time, so he is re-injured.

Q: You have all these new tools, you have the GPS and all this stuff. Can it prevent these things from happening or can it decrease the probability of these things happening?

A: Not in the case of a guy that has not been practicing. It can tell you — it can monitor the players under certain types of practices to tell you what their workload should be and if they approach that, you can back them down, but in the case of someone like Nat, he wasn’t even practicing, so there was no workload level other than the fact that he was doing a very, very limited amount of work the day before.

Q: How bad is Marshall Newhouse?

A: That is a surface scratch. Someone stepped on his leg when he was on the ground and it was down relatively low and it scared him because of where the step occurred.

Q: He should be able to play?

A: I think so.

Q: Just to be clear, this GPS day, recovery cycle day, that would be in place of a practice if you implemented this during the regular season?

A: That would be in the place of a practice. What you would do is you would load up according to the GPS system the first two days of the week. In other words, you cover a lot of territory. I don’t know if you noticed, but yesterday’s practice was quite long and could’ve actually been another five minutes. So you’re getting a lot of things done on an overload kind of a day and then you’re having an unloaded cycle and then the week’s not over yet.

Q: You don’t seem like a ‘less practice is better’ kind of guy?

A: Let’s not go there.

Q: Do you personally spend any time with the data? Do you find it interesting?

A: I have people that give me the feedback. It’s interesting, there’s no doubt about it.

Q: What about it has jumped out to you personally?

A: To be honest with you, they can tell you by virtue of the information the potential for a guy to have a soft tissue injury. When that happens, you back the guy down, and that’s the whole purpose. The whole purpose is to recognize someone who is headed for a strain, if you will, and try to do something about it.

Q: Have there been instances when you’ve gotten the information during a practice?

A: We’ve gotten the information that’s said to back off a guy, yes.

Q: Is Jayron Hosley okay?

A: Hosley practiced yesterday and he’s got the greenlight to go.

Q: You said he was doing some things before…

A: Yeah, he was. We’d like to see him do some more things. There’s a bunch of them we’d like to see some more things.

Q: After you see what happened with Nat Berhe, do you have to handle Victor Cruz any differently with his calf issue?

A: It’s the same basic area but two totally different injuries. We’ll do whatever we can if there are similarities. I’m sure the medical people follow that practice but each case is different. They’re not exactly the same.

Q: Victor is not going to play, correct?

A: He’s not going to play, no.

Q: With Weston Richburg, where do you stand with him?

A: He actually feels pretty good today. We should’ve called a practice for today. We’re going to keep working with him and seeing what the doctors and those people tell me. I don’t have anything new for you right now.

Q: Is it possible he plays then on Saturday?

A: Anything’s possible. It might rain. You never know.

Q: You just said Cruz is out, though. Is Richburg likely to be out as well?

A: I’m not answering that question. How much more—what can I do? I answered the Cruz question, that’s it.

Q: You said after a couple of days with the medical staff you may have a better idea on Jon Beason. Do you have that?

A: I don’t have any more for you. He won’t play this week.

Q: Will Landon Collins play?

A: Yes.

Q: How’s Mark Herzlich doing? Is he still…

A: He was coming along well and just didn’t feel real good yesterday. Not as well as I would like.

Q: So when that happens, it’s back to square one with the concussion thing?

A: Protocol has to be accomplished; otherwise, no.

THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
The following transcripts and video clips of player media Q&As are available at BigBlueInteractive.com and Giants.com:

WHAT’S UP NEXT…
The New York Giants training camp practices for this summer are now over. The team will conduct a walk-thru practice on Friday in advance of Saturday’s preseason game against the New York Jets.

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